If you feel scared to make a change, read this...

A lot has happened since the last time I posted on here. In what has felt like a whirlwind couple of months, I packed up life as I knew it in Adelaide, moved back to Tassie and started working in private practice as a dietitian. If you had of told me a few months ago that this is what my life would look like right now, I wouldn't have believed you. 

Why? Well I never really planned on moving back to Tassie (ask anyone that knows me and they will tell you how out of character this decision was). Nor did I have any expectations on finding work in the competitive field of dietetics in a small town such as Hobart. But hey, here I am. 

So why did I make the move? Well, a few reasons really. But to sum it up, I just wasn't feeling happy or present with where my life was at in Adelaide anymore. Every job I applied for I got rejected. Every shift at work felt like a drag. Every date I went on was a total flop. Every night I didn't want to drive home to the share house I was living in. It felt like nothing was going right for me. Things were starting to feel a little forced. It was like life was holding up a big neon sign saying 'ADELAIDE IS NOT MEANT FOR YOU ANYMORE' and it wasn't going to quit until I finally got the message. 

Of course, I can only view this with clarity in retrospect. At the time, it quite literally felt like my life was falling apart. So, after spending one too many nights crying on the phone to my sisters about my quarter life crisis, I finally realised I wasn't just having a bad week. Something needed to change. 

In what I can only describe as a light-bulb type moment, I woke up one morning not too long after this realisation and thought to myself: Maybe I should just move back home to Tassie. Within three days I had booked my ticket. Within five weeks I boarded the ferry home. I had no flipping clue what I was going to do when I got here, all I knew was that I needed to make a change. Like, drastically. And something about this decision just felt right. 

Fast forward to a few weeks before I was planned to move back, I saw a job advertised for a clinic only a few minutes drive from home in Tassie. I nonchalantly threw in an application with zero expectations on hearing back. Within a week I had an interview (which I thought I totally flunked). A few days later I got the call to say I had the job. It was all starting to seem a little too easy. Dare I say, meant to be. 

It's funny how the life-altering decisions always seem to work out like that though. You can't plan for them. They just kind of... fall into place. Crazy things can happen when you loosen your grip and release the need to micromanage every minute detail of the direction of your life. 

Perhaps what this experience has reinforced the most is that sometimes when you take a risk, life rewards you. Don't be afraid to shake things up a bit. Who knows, maybe the dust will settle in a place far more wonderful than where you are currently at. Be willing to let go of 'good enough' for better. To say goodbye to the familiar and make room for the unknown. Be brave, jump into the fog, and trust that the universe will catch you. I know, I know - I'm sounding pretty hippy dippy. But I really do believe in this stuff. 

Don't get me wrong, change can feel really scary. But I have come to learn that part of loving yourself through the process is realising that you will be okay no matter the outcome. Maybe making that change you feel too afraid to make will be a total disaster. Or maybe it will be the best thing that ever happens to you. Either way, trust that you will be just fine. Fear not change. Rather, fear staying the same. Fear resisting growth. Fear the sting of regret. Fear the uncomfortable question of 'what if' that can gnaw away at you when you favour your comfort zone. 

It blows my mind to think I could still be waking up in house I didn't like, to go to a job that didn't satisfy me in a city I felt as if I had outgrown all because I still feared change. As much as I hate to admit, the discomfort I felt during that time of 'deciding' was in fact the very thing that led me to a place where I now feel exited about where life might take me. Hitting rock bottom can be a beautiful blessing in disguise. Lean into it. It may be the very thing that forces you to level up to the next chapter. 

Serena x